Mind over matter or divinity mined?

          As the winter Olympics draw to a close, one is once again mesmerized by the beauty of the human body and what it is capable of achieving, especially when coupled with a beautiful mind. More than the sheer aesthetics of the body per se, it is the functionality that comes into play; sheer grit and determination, pure resolve and the urge to be the best of the best, sometimes at a nail biting tie, at the finish line and sometimes just a fraction of a second away, shows who nets a gold.

The Olympics were started nearly 3000 years ago, in Olympia, Greece and were called Olympiads. It is popularly believed that it came into being to appease the Gods, particularly Zeus and perhaps it has therefore been a tradition ever since of creating records and benchmarks that are hard to break, striving every now and then for a higher and more perfect score: both as a personal achievement and as a collective triumph.  History has shown that the best part of the games is, in the demonstration of the prowess, the power of the athletes and the palpable awe and respect of the spectators.

A race of a kind, sometimes against oneself, sometimes against time, sometimes just to achieve a level believed to be beyond human: divine. It is a unique coming together of several nationalities, converging for a common cause, exhibiting endurance and brilliance. Mind over matter, is the adage that fits in perfectly here, as it does in other similar situations of the daily grind, but more so in this context.

There is single-mindedness of purpose, there is thinking on the feet, there is balance; there is harmony. How is it then that this same control, of mind over matter, is not showcased in other aspects of life? Is it attributed to the law of the jungle? Is it a case of survival of the fittest? Is it, as science has shown, etched and imprinted on our DNA? Is it attributed, as some say, to acquired traits from the environment? Is it the primitive brain or the amygdala just taking over to perform when singled out by other emotive aspects of the human brain? What exactly is it that defines the manifestation of the human gene of excellence?

Poetry in movement is the simplest way in which one could define some of the examples of the Olympic events, be it figure skating, speed skating, snowboarding or other such similar sports, that are extremely demanding in terms of the expertise involved. Yet, results notwithstanding, there is a silent respect, a salutation from the heart, for the winner, even when the closest contender is defeated by just a whisker.

It is a mini-model of coexistence of the best with the best, immersed in individual and national fervor, patriotism and related emotions with an underlying need to excel for one’s own race, country, adopted country et al.

Does healthy competition, with an in built mechanism of resilience, foster a better human spirit? Is it about providing equal opportunities, where everything else fades into nothingness or becomes redundant? Could there be an answer in nurturing the young minds across the world with just the right dose of arts, sports, music and the like, producing more performing, more balanced beings, rather than feeding them on hollow and disconnected academics, panned around in the name of education?

Is the creative, performance and perfection gene/ability, often times clouded or submerged by false beliefs and pride, unleashing ever so often hegemony and anarchic regimes?  Unanswered though many such questions remain, the crux, the beauty, lies in uncovering of the self in context with what one can achieve.

©Copyright Suverchala Kashyap